


We play pretend

by fanfics_she_wrote



Series: Mara's JatP drabbles & one-shots [2]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: AU, Enemies to Lovers, Everybody Lives, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Jukebox, PALINA, drama club, i think, juke, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:34:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27572404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanfics_she_wrote/pseuds/fanfics_she_wrote
Summary: Julie and Luke have a rival thing going and are paired up as leads for the school play everytime despite it. However, their most emotional performance yet is about to change things.forjatp week, day two (3 Nov): write an au
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Mentioned!Carrie & Alex, Mentioned!Flynn & Reggie
Series: Mara's JatP drabbles & one-shots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015428
Comments: 13
Kudos: 169
Collections: JATP Appreciation Week





	We play pretend

Julie Molina loved her school. She loved her friends. She loved being in the music program and the drama club. She loved performing on stage, be it in a musical, a dance recital or simply singing her heart out with her best friend. Julie Molina loved a lot of things.

But boy, did she _hate_ Luke Patterson. It started in their first year of drama club together. Luke was just so arrogant about how he knew he was going to get the lead role. Furious, Julie fought for the lead role. Both of them were so engrossed in being such a good performer that they were the one picked, neither of them stopped to think about the fact that they were auditioning for Romeo and Juliet – a play with _two_ lead roles.

They were cast opposite each other and it infuriated both of them to no end.

They were going at it for five years now and their hatred only grew stronger. Julie’s best friend, Flynn, and Luke’s best friend, Reggie, clicked as soon as they met and they had a bet going on whether or not Julie and Luke would graduate still hating each other or not. They added five dollars to the bet each year. Julie’s other best friend, Carrie, and Luke’s other best friend, Alex, were best friends and while both were in the music program, neither was in the drama club, and so they always made sure to get front row seats together so they could make fun of their friends and try to get them to break character on stage.

Julie had been furious to discover Flynn and Carrie’s friendships with Luke’s friends, and vice versa. It only made everything funnier to everyone but Julie and Luke.

Simply watching Julie and Luke interact was more entertainment than the actual school plays they starred in. They dominated Carrie’s live posts and Flynn’s fame had actually bounced off the fame Julie and Luke’s rivalry had. As for Reggie and Alex, well, they were just thrilled to meet someone who fried Luke’s brain the way he fried theirs.

Julie knew for a fact that she hated Luke Patterson. He was loud and arrogant and rowdy and abrupt and all sorts of things.

Luke Patterson knew without a doubt that he hated Julie Molina. She was bossy and childish and nasty and cheeky and all sorts of things.

And yet, they were always cast opposite each other. Ms Darbus said it was because they simply had a fire for the scene that no other acting duo could even hope to compare to. Ms Harison, who made the mistake of partnering them on a music assignment exactly once, vehemently agreed despite having never put them in the same group again.

Julie and Luke often fought for other parts. Julie tried to play Tree #3 once. Ms Darbus had only laughed and said even her tree audition was too good for a background and persuaded Julie to submit an audition for the lead role. Luke had once simply not signed up. It seemed like it was working until he forgot to hand in an assignment and was told he’d get it waived if, and only if, he auditioned for the play – he knew it was a trap, but he needed the marks.

Needless to say, Julie and Luke were absolutely fed up with each other and the school musical. Both wanted out but neither were willing to give up drama – especially not for the sake of the other.

So when their senior year rolled around and the sign up sheet was pinned to the board, they both put their names down and again, crossing their fingers and hoping for a complex part.

And complex, did they receive. But they were still cast opposite each other. (Flynn has a video of Julie threatening to burn, bury, rip up, throw from a moving car and even eat her script if it meant not performing with Luke).

Their final play together was a lovely tale called The Ghost of Isobel. Julie loved the story. She thought it was the most romantic story in the world. She had tried and tried and tried to fight for one of the secondary roles – perhaps Ludovica, the lead role’s best friend. Luke had knelt in front of Ms Darbus and nearly cried as he begged for anything but the lead role. But alas, Julie was set to play the enchanting reborn princess, Bella Morte, and Luke was casted as the charming ghostly prince, Romeo Leannán.

Julie was just glad she wouldn’t have to pretend to enjoy being in Luke’s arms for the three nights they would perform the play and for the several months they would spend rehearsing, seeing as his character was a very intangible ghost.

For the first two months, rehearsals were the absolute best.

Bella wasn’t at all comfortable around Romeo and Romeo, despite being a huge flirt, didn’t trust a single thing Bella said. It was perfect for Julie and Luke. They barely even acted. Julie enjoyed yelling at Luke and throwing strategically placed ‘random’ objects at him. Luke enjoyed every opportunity to mess with Julie, either by – lightly – pulling her hair or 'tripping’ her up. They were lost in the euphoria of finally playing characters that simply did not want to be around one another.

But then Bella began to yearn for the feel of Romeo’s arms and Julie had to emulate those feelings. It would have been easy, given thag she didn’t have to say Luke’s name. She could easily picture anyone else being the person she wanted but for some unholy reason, she couldn’t get Luke’s face out of her head. Bella lamented to Dove about wanting nothing more than to hold Romeo’s hand, just once, but beneath it all, Julie was trying to wrap her head around his natural it felt to think about Luke and deliver her lines.

It wasn’t as if Luke was doing any better than Julie. It was the first time in five years that their rehearsals did not call for them to be in any kind of contact – in fact, it was the first time in five years that the script said to make sure the lack of contact was explicit. He’d been thrilled about it. He’d excitedly yelled about it to Reggie and Alex. For him too, rehearsals started off great. But then Romeo was falling in love with Bella again and Luke was incredibly disturbed by the ease with which he could think about Julie and deliver all Romeo’s poetic lines to empty rooms and to the letters he wrote that Julie – no, that _Bella_ would never see.

Still, their shared scenes were much easier to rehearse when their characters wanted as much distance as possible. Well, they used to be much easier.

The distance was beginning to weigh on them both. For all their burning hatred and loud rivalry, they had found a strange sense of comfort in sharing the stage and the same spotlight. It was almost tradition. It was unnerving, to say the least, to be far enough from each other that there wasn’t a single chance any contact at all would be made.

As the year crawled by, they nailed their scenes and moved further to the end of the play. Bella and Romeo shared an unspoken relationship. He followed her wherever she went. She was the only person in the world who could see and hear him but he would follow her even if she lost those abilities. He was too in love with her to leave.

By this point, Julie and Luke also shared an unspoken relationship. They sat too close when they read their lines to each other. They paused a moment when passing things to one another. They walked together to and from the hall, close enough that they would very likely trip over each other’s feet. When they memorised the lines correctly, they cheered and shared a high five. The high fives became secret handshakes. The secret handshakes became lingering touches. They’d started sharing the same script. No one said anything of the closeness, least of all them.

For every moment Bella and Romeo forced them to stand on opposite ends of the stage, Julie and Luke would spend equal time offstage in close proximity.

Julie couldn’t remember a time when she was on stage and unable to feel Luke in some way or another. Luke couldn’t remember ever being on stage without holding on to Julie, be it her wrist, her hand, her waist or her face.

Even standing right in front of each other, the distance between them was far too much. Bella yearned to be able to touch Romeo just once, but Julie ached for the familiar feeling of Luke’s arms around her. Romeo pined away the knowledge that he would never be able to hold Bella, but Luke’s fingers itched to feel Julie’s skin beneath his fingertips again.

Being on stage had turned into their own personal hell and still, neither of then picked up on what their friends had known for ages. During an unofficial rehearsal between the two, Luke had mistakenly delivered a line with “Julie, my love” instead of Bella’s name and the lack of a correction had stunned two stage hands nearby that they nearly fried the sound system.

And then they were rehearsing the final scenes. For the first time, they read the end of the script.

 _Bella hesitates at first, then doesn’t think. She simply reaches out and trusts that she will fall into Romeo’s arms_.

Julie and Luke stare at the words for what feels like hours. It bounces around in their heads for a while. Bella hugs Romeo. Bella hugs Romeo. Bella hugs Romeo.

Julie doesn’t have to think about it. Without waiting a single moment more after Luke delivers his lines, she flies from her stage marker and into Luke’s waiting arms. Luke doesn’t have to think about it either. He wraps both arms around Julie as tight as he can without hurting her. He hides his face in her shoulder and realizes he doesn’t want to be anywhere else. Julie’s fingers find Luke’s hair and as she sighs in the most blissful feeling of contentment, it strikes her with incredible force just how much she wants to stay like this forever.

Ms Darbus almost forgets to yell cut.

The first night is easy. It’s just a school play. The distance is okay because they know at the end of it all, they’ll end up sharing the spotlight.

The second night is tedious. They’ve spent too long apart and the final scenes can’t come early enough. If they both weren’t so good at what they did, they would have broken character halfway through.

The third night is torture. In between scenes, they refuse to be apart, to the point where Julie had to be dragged into the small dressing room to switch costumes. Luke almost missed his cue once because he was sitting with Julie, using the excuse that he was going over his lines with her.

Bella and Romeo dramatically and poetically pined away for the arms of their lovers and truthfully, both Julie and Luke were only slightly concerned that they weren’t acting at all.

“I don’t care,” Luke said, “let this be my last moments on earth and I shall never know peace. But should they be spent in your arms, then I shall know nothing but.”

The script said Bella hesitated for a second but Julie couldn’t. Luke nearly broke character when Julie crashed into him with enough force to make him stumble back a few steps.

To the audience, it was the sweetest display of affection and their portrayal of the characters stabbed knives into the hearts of anyone who already knew what was coming next.

As it had done the previous two nights, the spotlights flashed hard, white light on the stage.

Julie didn’t want to let go of Luke. Perhaps she couldn’t. But the show must go on and before the lights readjusted, Luke vanished off the stage.

The audience watched a lonely Bella on stage wrap her arms around herself, head bowed, before slowly sinking to the floor.

Luke watched from the wings as Julie made this her most painful performance yet, displaying Bella’s grief at having lost Romeo in a way that tore at _his_ heart. When the curtains shut on Julie still seated on the floor, Luke didn’t hesitate for a second and he was there by her side within an instant.

The night had gone on too long and being able to hold Julie again gave him a rush he couldn’t hope to describe. Julie mutely eased into his embrace. She always liked to become her characters. It made them more fun to play.

But oh, how she hated becoming Bella. Because Bella lost her love and Julie never wanted to lose Luke. No matter how arrogant and obnoxious and rowdy and cocky he was, he belonged to her and she wouldn’t have it any other way. They were still sitting together in the dark when 'Dove’ stepped through to the front and delivered the final lines to the play.

Something about how, when time had passed and Bella had lived a full life, she was eventually reunited with her Romeo, where they would spend eternity together as they were meant to in the time of Bella’s first life, when Romeo had been a prince and he had accidentally married his best friend.

And when it was time for the curtain call, Ms Darbus was only mildly surprised to discover that Julie and Luke were still on the floor together. The audience was none the wiser, taking the sight as proof that Bella did eventually reunite with Romeo.

In truth, Julie was afraid that if she let go of Luke, he was going to vanish for good and she absolutely could not have that.

All through the after party, Julie and Luke would stick by each other, absolutely refusing to be separated by anything other than a trip to the bathroom.

Flynn was not happy about having to give Reggie twenty-five dollars, while Carrie was just happy Alex graciously carried extra film for her camera in his fanny pack – she was on a roll with it.

When everything had calmed and they were mostly alone, Julie turned to Luke. “I’ve been thinking, UCLA isn’t a bad idea.”

Luke’s eyebrows lifted slightly. “You said you were applying out of state because I was going to UCLA.”

“I know. But maybe sticking around isn’t going to be that bad.”

“I see.”

Julie Molina hated very few things in life, most of them small, annoying, trivial things. She hated the smell of gas. She hated missing classes. She hated it when her brother ate the leftovers she’d saved for herself. Julie Molina hated a few things.

But oh, how she _loved_ Luke Patterson.


End file.
